If youve read The Vodka Cookbook (and if you havent, buy the book immediately), you should now be convinced that vodka belongs in the kitchen as well as the liquor cabinet. But maybe theres also room for a bottle in the medicine cabinet?

In ancient times, Russian villagers — famous for their superstitious nature — would attempt to bribe measles and other infirmities by placing a bottle of vodka and food offerings at their front door along with a plea for the illness to pass. Later, vodka was combined with herbs and other ingredients to disinfect, cleanse or treat a variety of ailments.
Today, plain and flavored vodkas are still considered to be very much a cure-all by modern Russians. What follows is a sample of the recipes that have been shared with me by Russian babushkas (grandmothers) and collected from various sources over the years. I cant say with any certainty that all of them will cure what ails you. But, like chicken soup, they probably cant do you very much harm.